Promotional campaigns and commercial messages permeate most waking hours of children's lives. Children must be educated about the nature of commercial messages directed at them, and their ability to resist sales pressure must be built. (JD)

A sample of 144 college students responded to content- and application-based questions derived from popular newspaper and magazine articles on contemporary health topics. Overall rate of reader misunderstanding was nearly 40 percent, with a uniform error rate for each of 16 articles, leading to a conclusion that consumer misunderstanding of…

Technology education (based on an organized set of concepts, processes, and systems) is designed to replace traditional industrial arts programs (based on a study of materials, like wood or metals). At the secondary level, teachers can engage students in research and experimentation that cuts across the disciplines. (MLH)

Consumer educators can help students develop consumer/citizen roles through curricula linking consumer rights with citizen responsibilities. Dialogue about issues, community needs assessment, and community volunteer service enable students to practice citizen roles. (SK)

Three interviews each with 10 female secondary family/consumer education teachers elicited themes suggesting that the family plays a role in development of the meanings people hold about the nature of work and choice and persistence in integrated work roles. Families appear to nurture employability skills/values, job-specific skills/values, and…

A study of 200 rural Missouri teenagers revealed that this captive audience is hoodwinked by Channel One TV commercials. Some students viewed sportswear commercials as advertisements for athletes. Others mistook certain Pepsi commercials for public-service announcements. Repetition, testimonials, and bandwagon appeals are classic propaganda…

This summary of a seminar meeting on consumer concerns in services for people with blindness and visual impairments addresses the future of services, an ideal model of the blindness system, goals of rehabilitation services, a mission statement, differential evaluation of system criteria, and strategies to implement goals. (DB)

Based on a complex time series evaluation, a 2-year intervention in 40 supermarkets in Washington (DC) and Baltimore (Maryland) indicates that a nutrition education program could produce small but positive changes in consumers' food purchasing behavior. Limitations of the study and its implications for future evaluations are discussed. (SLD)

Corporations contribute curricular materials to schools. Argues that the goal of these materials is to initiate the school-age population to their products, enhance their public image, and increase visibility of their products. Cites examples of corporate activity with these goals. (MDH)

Through content and textual analysis of "Seventeen" magazine from 1951 to 1991, the emergence and transformation of environmental discourse are explored to show how the progressive impetus of a popular social movement is redefined in an adolescent magazine to create mythologies of consumption. (SLD)

Although courts and legislators usually set legal standards that correspond to empirical knowledge of human behavior, recent developments in behavioral psychology have led courts to appreciate the limits and errors in consumer decision making. "Reasonable consumer" standards that are congruent with cognitive reality should be developed.…

An inventory collected responses from 63 adult beginning readers and 41 proficient readers regarding beliefs, feelings, and behaviors about consumer, social context, work-related, at-home, and recreational reading. Many views of the two groups were similar, although beginners disliked reading complex materials and reading aloud, do not read at…

Virginia Cooperative Extension's Public Information System includes three programs readable on laser discs: Consumer Products, Money Matters, and There Is a Law. The touch-screen interface and flexible design provide users with access to hours of information and hundreds of printed fact sheets. (Author)

A decrease in community involvement in a substance-abuse prevention program for teens was attributed to lack of diversity in program planners (mostly health professionals) and awareness but lack of action among community members. The project worked to generate parent participation and ownership of the program. (SK)

Interviews of adult literacy learners were compared with depictions of learners as consumers in textbooks. Texts focused on learners' deficits and lack of knowledge, whereas learners viewed themselves as competent, capable consumers despite limited academic skills and income. (Contains 40 references.) (SK)